Barisan Nasional state assembly speaker R Ganesan lodged a police report with the Ipoh district police headquarters accusing his Pakatan Rakyat speaker V Sivakumar of illegally using the speaker’s official letterhead twice to communicate with him.

Ganesan said the 'abuse of official letterheads' happened twice - Sivakumar’s July 14 reply to his affidavit and summoning Ganesan to an inquiry on July 27.

sivakumar and ganesan perak state assembly 150509 Ganesan claimed that he was appointed as the legal speaker on May 7 to replace Sivakumar and thus the latter had used the letterheads 'illegally'.

He said that he will not attend the committee inquiry headed by Sivakumar on Monday as he is the lawful Perak speaker.

Besides, he said he would not be his chambers on Monday as he would be attending the opening of the new state legislative assembly for Sarawak in Kuching.

Ganesan said he received the summon notice on Wednesday and he will not respond to it.

Sivakumar had summoned Ganesan before him and his Committee of Powers and Privileges on Monday to answer charges of contempt and unlawful conduct.

Sivakumar in his summon notice stated that Ganesan had no right to be in the House during the riotous May 7 assembly sitting and had acted contrary to parliamentary practice when he instructed police to remove Sivakumar from the speaker’s chair at 2.40pm that day.

'I am the lawful speaker'

Sivakumar, who is Tronoh assemblyperson, maintained that he was the legal Perak Speaker and also chairman of the powers and privileges committee.

Monday’s meeting was to allow Ganesan to answer charges filed against him by DAP Pokok Assam assemblyperson Yee Seu Kai.

When contacted, Sivakumar told Malaysiakini “I am the lawful speaker of Perak and I have all the right to use the letterheads of the state speaker. It is my right to do so and no one can question me on this.”

Sivakumar is puzzled over Ganesan’s report to the police, because in his sworn affidavit of June 24, Ganesan had stated in clause 22 of his affidavit that the speaker’s position cannot be decided by the court and it can only be done in the assembly sitting.

Also in clause 23 of his affidavit Ganesan had stated the proceedings in the state assembly cannot be questioned by any court of law.

"He cannot use the criminal law to threaten me as he had stated in his affidavit that these are the matters for the assembly to decide and to use force to throw me out of the assembly is criminal," he said.

While the war of words between the two speakers continue, come Aug 6, the Ipoh High Court will decide the fate and future of the two disputing speakers.